“We have to understand that an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths”, Obama said at the mosque in Catonsville, a suburb west of Baltimore.
Advertisement
U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday slammed anti-Muslim rhetoric and appealed for tolerance for millions of Muslims in the country during his first visit to a U.S. mosque as president.
There’s no doubt, he said, that a small sect of the world’s Muslims are hellbent on terrorism and destruction. “We have to reject a politics that seeks to manipulate prejudice or bias and targets people because of religion”. “We’re a diverse nation”, said Mike Martin, spokesman for the Islamic Center of San Antonio.
According to the Baltimore Sun, the Islamic Society of Baltimore has about 3,000 congregants, and runs a K-12 school, summer camp and health clinic.
“As we go forward, I want every Muslim American to remember that…Your fellow Americans stand with you”, Obama said and assured the young Muslim Americans, that, “you are not Muslim or American”.
Later, he told a crowd of cheering children, who had packed the mosque’s gymnasium to watch his speech on large screens, that one day they too could become president.
“It’s not that hard to do”, Obama said, addressing network execs not in the hall.
During an interview with Greta Van Susteren, the Fox News host asked Trump about the visit.
Other observers noted that a visit earlier in his presidency might only feed conspiracy theories that Mr. Obama, a Christian, was secretly a Muslim.
This jab is likely at Trump, who says we need to ban Muslims from entering the country until we can get a better background checking system to ensure those entering our country are not terrorists.
Obama has reached out to the Jewish community as well. “That’s how we show the lie that they’re trying to propagate”, he said.
“If you’re ever wondering if you fit in here, let me say it as clearly as I can as the president of the United States: You fit in here; right here”. “So I was not the first”, he said lightly as the audience laughed.
Advertisement
Republican candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have also repeatedly warned of “radical Islamic terrorism” and insulted Obama for refusing to use the term, which the President has said unfairly demonizes a whole faith. “We have to respect the fact that we have freedom of religion”, Obama said.
